Facing Cage Force staple and UFC/DREAM vet Kuniyoshi Hironaka (16-8) at Sunday’s “Pancrase: Passion Tour 9″ show, Kitaoka (27-10-9) used counter-striking, multiple takedown attempts and an eventual ground scramble to set up a fight-ending guillotine choke at the 4:22 mark of the second round.

After the fight, Kitaoka, who had lost back-to-back Sengoku fights before the return to Pancrase, hinted at a likely retirement from the long-running promotion and a likely return to Japan’s big stages. And despite the title loss to Mizuto Hirota and a subsequent KO defeat to Jorge Masvidal under the Sengoku banner, Kitaoka now has won eight of his past 10 fights.

Irvin picked up his win in front of a small crowd at Saturday’s Rebel Fights event at the Placer County Fair & Events Center in Roseville, Calif. (See an amateur video of the fight with the embedded clip.)

Irvin (15-7), fighting for the first time since his release from the UFC this summer, weathered an early storm and knockdown from Angel DeAnda (7-2), who’s posted six knockouts in his seven career wins.

And though referee Josh Rosenthal nearly stopped the fight in DeAnda’s favor, Irvin stormed back with a series of straight rights, including one that sent DeAnda to the mat for the final time at the 1:42 mark of the opening round.

Prior to his UFC release, Irvin suffered consecutive first-round stoppage losses to Anderson Silva, Alessio Sakara and Igor Pokrajac. The run included a short-lived and troublesome cut to middleweight.

Hague, meanwhile, picked up his second consecutive win since his own UFC release earlier this year.

Fighting at Friday’s Aggression MMA 5 event at the Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the Canadian Hague (12-4) needed fewer than two minutes to score a knockout of 76-fight veteran and fellow heavyweight Travis Wiuff (62-14).

Hague topped Pat Barry in his octagon debut but then suffered consecutive defeats to Todd Duffee (KO), Chris Tuchscherer (majority decision) and Joey Beltran (unanimous decision). He’s now won two straight under the AMMA banner following a first-round TKO of “The Ultimate Fighter 10″ cast member Zak Jensen (9-5) back in July.

Wiuff, meanwhile, saw his seven-fight win streak come to a halt.

Other notables in action included:

On Saturday in South Korea, Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem (7-4) advanced to the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 8 with a kickboxing win over Ben Edwards (31-7-2). The TKO victory set up a Dec. 8 quarterfinal fight with Tyrone Spong (65-5-1).

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?